Nick Barker

How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...

Georgia further tightens protest rules, targets pavement rallies The draft law would require ‘prior notification’ even when a protest does not block vehicle traffic.

Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party has sought to further tighten protest-related legislation with another draft law which would require protesters to ‘notify’ the state in advance if a demonstration is held in areas designated for ‘people’s movement’.

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

Textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing

"Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack ... ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions."

Report by @alexhorton.bsky.social @ellenwapo.bsky.social o.bsky.social

Get serious, Europeans. You are your only hope.

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

This, this, this. If journalists don’t scrutinize this and explain it properly now then they have failed on their duty and will bear a share of the blame if such policies are enacted (most of the public oppose them and don’t I think realise what is being proposed yet).

Inventing Antifa In 2005, the Uzbek government invented a group called “Akromiya” to justify massacring protesters. Now I worry the US government will do the same.

"I've told the story of Akromiya for 20 years. I’m telling it again now, because today is No King’s Day, and I am afraid that 'Antifa' is the American Akromiya: a fabricated entity made by state propagandists to persecute anyone who opposes the government."
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/inventing-...

Civilizing Contention by Rana B. Khoury | Paperback | Cornell University Press In Civilizing Contention, Rana B. Khoury asserts that to understand civilian and refugee activism in war, we must regard the international actors and organizations that enter the scene to help. When.....

To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, and to support emerging scholars, I'd like to buy and mail copies to ten graduate students.

If you’re a grad student who’d like a copy, reply or DM me!

www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

It’s been hard 24h for Georgians. Grave mistakes were made. Yesterday, Georgia lost a battle against Russian takeover - but the fight for freedom &democracy continues. If there’s one thing yst proved, it’s that resistance hasnt disappeared. They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds. 1/12

"staff are being called back from redundancy".

The End Times of Academia "It was the non-existent future that I was working toward that was the problem."

Love this: "Do not submit to anyone, including the plagiarized digital detritus called “AI.” Read and think on your own terms with your own words. Do not take your ability to do so for granted." sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-end-ti...

Finding inspiration from the brilliant @sarahkendzior.bsky.social: "If you are a student, a professor, or a self-taught intellectual — fight. Fight by refusing to abandon your humanity, your originality, and your will to explore."

UNITED24 - The initiative of the President of Ukraine UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of...

There has never been a better time to support Ukraine. Donate now u24.gov.ua

UNITED24 - The initiative of the President of Ukraine UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of...

Public Service Announcement: if what's happening in Alaska makes you sick, a donation to Ukraine would improve your health

free article: https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/soul-stripping

sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/soul-strip...

Decades of mechanistic talk about university degrees as if they were bundles of 'skills' and 'prep' are about to be proved completely wrong (obviously). Want to get a real boost? Do History or English.

Why Clarity Feels Dangerous (Especially If You’re an Academic) The Hardest Work in Writing Is Saying What You Really Mean

George Orwell warned: bad writing leads to bad thinking.

Academia trains us to write for journals, not the public.
Clarity feels risky, because it exposes us.

But clear communication is essential for democracy.
So how do we do it?

🧵

New post 👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/why-clarit...

It’s true that my fellow students are embracing AI – but this is what the critics aren’t seeing | Elsie McDowell Those turning to ChatGPT aren’t lazy. My generation has found itself stranded in a rapidly changing and, since Covid, badly mishandled education system, says student Elsie McDowell

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Year Four of Civil War Paths: Taking Stock - Civil War Paths Professor Anastasia Shesterinina is Chair in Comparative Politics at the University of York. She currently holds a £1.2m UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship and direct the Centre for ...

Newly published on the @civilwarpaths.bsky.social blog, @ashesterinina.bsky.social shares updates from the past year, including exciting insights from recent events, new publications from the team, and the range of contributions from our Fellows. Read more 👇

I guess that posts with war interest people more.

But I am determined to show you that Ukraine is more than the war:
rich history, art, culture and fantastic nature.

Porcelain Blossom. Opishnia, Poltava Oblast

There is only one warmonger on the European stage: Vladimir Putin | Letter Letter: Experts on Russia, Ukraine and international security respond to a letter that criticised Fiona Hill for her assessment of the Russian threat to Britain

On 13 June, @theguardian.com published a collective letter concerning Russia’s war & attacking Dr #FionaHill, the chancellor of Durham University & one of the principal authors of the UK’s strategic defence review. As UK-based or British-educated experts in matters pertaining to Russia, we disagree.

Very glad to see a number of good friends and colleagues signing the letter in support of Dr Hill

Revealed: Thousands of UK university students caught cheating using AI Guardian investigation finds almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating – and experts says these are tip of the iceberg

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Might be relevant: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Anyone who uses Chat GPT is insane

The case for universities Institutions everywhere are in crisis, but they will survive

www.ft.com/content/1517...

State-building and the recognition of a right to statehood: international involvement in post-1999 Kosovo Informed by a novel conceptualization of the recognition of a right to statehood and its relation to state-building, this study explores under what conditions international organizations contribute...

Delighted to share my new article. I explore the relationship between state recognition & state-building through a study of #UN & #EU involvement in #Kosovo to better grasp how states are built/recognised in conflict-affected areas.

Free to access!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #conflictsky

Russia seizing thousands of homes in occupied Mariupol - BBC News To save their homes, Ukrainians face a dangerous return through Russia, and pressure to take a Russian passport.

Russian authorities are systematically seizing thousands of homes from Ukrainian residents of Mariupol.

BBC Verify has analysed dozens of official documents published since July 2024 that show at least 5,700 homes have been identified for seizure. www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...